Beyond the Door (1974)

When someone makes a rip-off of a popular film there are number of rules they should follow.  One, which Beyond the Door and its contemporary Abby forgot, is to make the movie different enough that the studio that made the original (in this case The Exorcist) doesn't sue.  Warner Bros. did and producer/director Ovidio G. Assonitis had to pony up a settlement to keep his movie in the theaters.  It happened to be a worthy investment because Beyond the Door, thanks to a slick ad campaign and the use of similar sound equipment to Earthquake in choice theaters, turned quite the profit.

However, although I'm sure Assonitis saw differently, profit is not the only thing.  To have staying power the knockoff has to be shorter, faster and nastier.  Beyond the Door is shorter than The Exorcist, but somehow feels twice as long and, except for a couple of scenes that feel a bit uneasy, it is quite a bit tamer.  It also features bad dubbing, lots of dialog to go along with that bad dubbing, and a story that is only intermittently interesting. 

Jessica Barrett (Juliet Mills) and her husband Robert (Gabriele Lavia) are living in San Francisco with their children Gail (Barbara Fiorini) and Ken (David Colin Jr.).  Jessica surprises Robert by telling him she is pregnant with the third child.  However, their family doctor George (Nino Segurini) becomes concerned due to the rapid growth of the fetus.

Robert also has his concerns as his wife's demeanor changes.  She begins acting hostile toward the children and to him as well as speaking in voices and mentioning a man named Dimitri (Richard Johnson).  Dimitri is in fact a former lover of hers from before she met Robert and happens to be following her husband around, trying to convince him that he knows what is going on and that the baby must be born to expel the evil that is within it.  However, Dimitri has his own reasons for wanting it born, as does the child itself.

The movie begins with narration from the Devil himself and even includes scenes of Jessica's head spinning around as well as green vomit.  It's not projectile, but bright green and more gooey and cakey, but there is no way around the fact that Assonitis is merely just trying to skirt the edges of copyright infringement.  He does come up with some good ideas, such as Jessica levitating and flying out of a room and the kids being attacked by their toys, and it is those scenes that stick with the audience.

Like most Italian films of the time it tried to full audiences into thinking it was a Hollywood production.  While the exteriors were filmed in San Francisco, all the interiors were on sound stages in Rome, and pretty much no one except Richard Johnson and Juliet Mills was dubbed with their real voice.  Whoever did the voicetrack for Gabriele Lavia did it in an hilarious monotone throughout the majority of the movie.  The voice actress for Gail is obviously much older than Barbara Fiorini, although I like how they make her a foulmouthed little munchkin.

Despite it not being a great film Mills puts on an excellent performance.  Johnson isn't bad, spending much of his time lurking, but his part would have been served better with some more background.  The ending, as is usual with many of these films, tries to be artsy but only ends up being confusing and frustrating.  

It should be said that, although it appears there were sequels to this film, that's a bit deceptive.  In true exploitation fashion they were names slapped on to existing movies for American distribution since Beyond the Door managed to find an audience despite being a slow, jumbled slog.  That said, Shock, marketed as Beyond the Door II, is one of the better latter day Mario Bava films and Beyond the Door III, aka Amok Train, is a fun direct-to-video splatter film. 

Beyond the Door (1974)

Time: 108 minutes

Starring: Juliet Mills, Gabriele Lavia, Richard Johnson, Nino Segurini

Director: Ovido G. Assonitis